


At the Fence

by QuuGee



Series: Launchitz 2020 [1]
Category: Dragon Ball
Genre: Everyone is between 6-11 years old, Excessively minor appearance of Bulma and Yamcha, F/M, Goku has ADHD, Launchitz Week 2020, Vaguely the 90s, everyone is human, school au
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2020-08-17
Updated: 2020-08-17
Packaged: 2021-03-05 19:27:10
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 3,771
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/25940581
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/QuuGee/pseuds/QuuGee
Summary: Raditz is just trying to be a responsible brother. Sometimes that means bopping a girl on the head.Day 1 of Launchitz Week 2020 ("School AU")
Relationships: Launch/Raditz (Dragon Ball)
Series: Launchitz 2020 [1]
Series URL: https://archiveofourown.org/series/1883413
Kudos: 4





	At the Fence

**Author's Note:**

> Happy Launchitz Week! Apologies in advance for the more Western setting, but a lot of this was based on my own memories of middle school in the U.S.
> 
> Hopefully, I'll get a few more prompts done before the week is up, time permitting. I’m already cutting it close with this one, so editing may have missed a few things. Feel free to point out any errors. Enjoy!

For being only six years old, Kakarot was bizarrely strong. Or maybe he was just a really good wiggler. Either way, Raditz was finding it difficult to hold on to the excited first grader's hand as they walked toward school in the early autumn morning.

“Stop pulling me!” Raditz snapped and yanked back on his little brother's hand with enough force to lift the boy momentarily off his feet. “You're so damn embarrassing.”

Were it up to Raditz, he would have stopped holding hands with Kakarot once he'd turned eleven and moved on to middle school, but his mother had been very insistent. If she found out that Raditz had let his brother run wild, there would be _consequences._

Kakarot flashed Raditz a reproachful look that lasted all of five seconds before he was bouncing on the balls of his feet again. “You're too slow!” he chided. “I wanna see Krillin.”

“You see that nerd every day,” Raditz grumbled, but reluctantly let himself get hurried along with only a token resistance.

Kakarot had not been impressed by his new class when the school year had begun and he’d discovered none of his kindergarten friends were there. In fact, he'd screamed so loudly the first time their mother tried to leave him that Raditz heard it all the way in the middle school building next door. Since meeting his classmate, Krillin, and reuniting with his friends on the playground, he'd done a complete one-eighty. Now, he couldn't get to school fast enough.

Raditz almost envied his enthusiasm.

“Hey,” he said, shaking Kakarot by the hand to get his attention. “Remember to meet me at the fence today when you get recess.”

“Okay,” Kakarot replied without looking at him.

Raditz frowned. “Are you listening? I gotta give you your medicine at recess, okay?”

“Nurse gives it to me.”

“Not since you bit her. Remember dad had that whole talk with you? If you make me jump the fence to find you, Kakarot, I'm gonna kick your ass!” It was already annoying enough having to spend part of his lunch making sure his little brother took his “concentration pills” in the first place.

By this time, the brothers could see the elementary school gates ahead of them. Kakarot jumped in glee as he presumably spotted the shine of a little bald head in the distance.

“KRILLIN!” He dove forward, only to be immediately yanked back by Raditz's firm grip.

“Kakarot, say you're gonna meet me,” the older boy demanded.

“Let go!”

Raditz expertly switched his grip to the back of his brother's neck as the little twerp tried to bite his wrist. “Just say it, brat!”

“Okay, I'll meet you for nasty candy at recess,” Kakarot growled. As soon as Raditz let him go with a grunt of approval, the first grader dashed away.

Raditz watched him go with exasperated fondness before continuing on to his own school a little further down the road. He took his time. It wasn’t like he had much waiting for him there.

* * *

Kakarot was most definitely NOT at the fence when lunchtime rolled around.

Raditz gripped the chain-link tightly with his fingers and swore under his breath. Expecting his flighty little brother to actually remember instructions had been a long shot, anyway, but now it looked like he was actually going to have to kick the kid right in the ass. Probably Krillin, too, since the little baldy was unlikely to let him get away with it without a fight.

“Dammit,” Raditz muttered in resignation.

The fence he stood at ran across a wide field between the two schools, separating the field into the elementary side and the middle school side. Fortunately, it was far enough away from the main buildings that there was rarely a reason for anyone to be out there; if he was quick, it was possible to be over and back before anyone noticed. He might even have time to eat if he managed to find Kakarot soon.

Casting a quick glance around to confirm he was alone, Raditz leaped up and scaled the fence before dropping down onto the grass on the other side. From there, he wasted no time in jogging toward where he remembered the jungle gym—and therefore Kakarot—to be located.

He heard Kakarot long before he spotted him.

“OWW! That hurt!”

Raditz bristled. That was definitely his brother screaming over the sounds of the other children. He hastened his steps and soon came upon the playground and a scene of chaos.

Kakarot, Krillin, and two other children he didn't recognize were hiding on one side of the old turtle climber while an older girl stood a few paces away, cackling her little blonde head off. The reason for the children's fear soon became obvious as the blonde reared back and threw a rapid series of what looked like small rocks at the huddled group with all her might.

A little girl with cyan hair shrieked as she was beaned on the head.

“Yamcha, help me!” she wailed dramatically as she collapsed against the boy beside her.

“Bulma!” Kakarot cried in outrage. He jumped up onto the turtle climber, fists raised, only to be immediately rewarded with another beaning of his own right in the forehead. He was knocked back down with the others. “Owwww!”

Raditz had seen enough. He charged forward.

The blonde must have spotted him coming from the corner of her eye, because she turned her head toward him just as he approached on her left. He saw her green eyes widen in alarm and her arm pitch back—right before he conked her on the top of the head with his fist.

She went down like a busted marionette.

The sudden silence prompted Kakarot to poke his head up from behind the turtle. “Raditz!” he shouted in pleasant surprise.

Krillin appeared beside him. “Get her, Raditz! She was throwing chestnuts at us!”

Raditz glanced down at the prone girl and saw she had a sizable pile of chestnuts beside her. His frown deepened. He knew how much those things hurt—he and his friends used to pelt unsuspecting kids with them, too, when he was younger.

But those were other kids. This was his brother. Speaking of which...

Raditz stepped over the fallen girl and marched toward the turtle. Poor, unsuspecting Kakarot actually came out from hiding to greet him.

“Whatcha doin' h—OUCH!”

Quick as a flash, Raditz had turned his brother around and given him a boot to the ass. He heard Krillin yelp in surprise as Kakarot whirled around and fixed him with a snarl.

“What was THAT for?” he asked, both hands gripping his backside in pain.

“You were supposed to meet me at the fence!” Raditz scolded, pointing back in the direction of his school.

“What for?”

Kakarot was spared another kick in the pants when something heavy suddenly landed on Raditz's back. Deceptively thin arms curled around his neck and started strangling the life out of him.

“You sonuvabitch!” a harsh voice raged into his ear. “I'll kill ya!”

The children were shrieking again, but Raditz couldn't make out what they were saying. His blood was roaring in his ears as he realized the blonde girl wasn't as done as he'd thought and had actually gotten the jump on him.

He pulled at her arms until he was able to take a gasp of air. “Y-you're DEAD, blondie!” he choked out. Unoriginal, perhaps, but heartfelt.

She responded by tightening her grip even more.

Raditz was no stranger to a good fight, but he couldn't seem to throw the girl no matter how much he shook and pulled at her. She had positioned herself right in the small of his back, firmly out of his reach like some kind of demented jockey, and was using her weight to drag him down by the neck. She had even managed to trap his long hair between their bodies so he couldn't move his head freely.

At the very least, he took some satisfaction in hearing her snort and sputter as his unruly hair inevitably got up her nose and into her mouth. Maybe he should consider dropping onto the ground and smothering her with it—

“ACHOO!”

Without warning, the girl unleashed a ferocious sneeze directly against the back of his head, blasting herself off of his back in the process. He let out a squawk of disgust, whirling around on the spot to pin her with a look of absolute fury. The girl only sniffled and looked back up at him from the ground with remarkably big, blue eyes. Her obvious attempt at playing innocent only further enraged him.

“Did you just spray your nasty snot all over me?!” he demanded, taking a hostile step toward her.

“Wait, Raditz, stop!” Kakarot called and scurried between him and the girl. The little brat actually had the audacity to spread his arms out as if to physically block his older brother from his opponent.

Behind the boy, Raditz could see the other children hurry to the blonde's side to help her stand. Except... she wasn't exactly blonde anymore. Her hair was now such a rich, dark blue that he couldn't fathom how he'd ever mistaken it for anything else.

Confused, Raditz restrained himself from knocking Kakarot out of the way in favor of fixing him with a puzzled look.

“Wh-where'd blondie go?” he asked.

“That's her,” Kakarot explained easily. “She changes when she sneezes. It's no big deal, but she's not mean anymore so you shouldn't fight her.”

Raditz blinked. “Are you kidding me?”

Kakarot shrugged one shoulder. “She won't put up a good fight like this anyway.”

One look at the girl seemed to confirm this. She was still sniffling as the little kids surrounded her, patting her hands and murmuring softly as if to comfort her. It was embarrassing to watch and Raditz decided he really didn't want to be here anymore.

“Whatever,” he said at last, reaching into his pocket and pulling out the bottle of medication; the whole damn reason he was here in the first place.

Kakarot's face filled with sudden recognition and then turned sheepish. “Hehe, oops.”

Raditz snorted as he dumped the pill into his brother's small hand. “Yeah, 'oops'.”

As they walked toward the nearest water fountain to get Kakarot a drink, he appraised the red spot on his brother's head where the chestnut had left a mark. He hadn’t gotten any licks in that Raditz saw, but the little boy hadn’t backed down from the fight either. That alone was admirable enough for Raditz to decide that the kid had suffered enough for ditching him... this time. If Kakarot forgot to meet him at the fence the next day, he was going to give the angry red mark a twin.

* * *

The next day, Kakarot was waiting for him as promised, but he wasn't alone.

Raditz nearly sighed aloud as he spied the head of—very clearly—blonde hair standing on the other side of the fence with her fingers aggressively grasping the chain-link. He could see her sharp, venomous eyes scanning the field, back and forth, searching for her target. He had a pretty good idea who that was.

Sure enough, as soon she spotted him coming toward her, she stood up straight and scowled. Seated on the ground beside her, Kakarot took note of the shift in her position and looked up from the grass he was shredding. He grinned at the sight of his brother and opened his mouth to shout out to him.

Raditz hurried to close the gap between them before any attention could be drawn to their meeting.

“Shut up, I'm here,” he hissed.

Kakarot was unperturbed by the rough greeting. “Hi, Raditz! You took _forever_ ,” he said cheerfully.

“Yeah, yeah,” Raditz replied with a dismissive nod as he shook a pill into his palm. He passed it to Kakarot before fixing a glare on the girl. “What is she doing here?”

The girl sneered. For being on the face of someone who couldn't be older than ten, Raditz thought it was an incredibly mean sneer. Even his dad would have been impressed.

Kakarot was oblivious to the tension. “Launch wants to fight you again so she came with me. You'll fight her, won't you?”

Raditz scoffed. “And why would I do that? I don't fight punks I've already beaten.”

The girl lunged forward, pressing her face against the links of the fence hard enough to leave indents in her skin. She showed no sign of pain, only rage as she said, “Beat nothin'! I was still standin' when you left, so that means you forfeited.”

“Forfeited!?” Raditz snarled in disbelief. Forgetting the need for discretion, he shoved his face right up against hers. “I only backed off because Kakarot got upset when you started crying like a baby!”

“It's called allergies, dumbass, which I only got because of your stupid hair! But lucky for you, I don't accept forfeits _or_ excuses. Meet me in the park after school for a rematch, you and me, no interference. Got it?”

Despite his anger at this challenge, Raditz couldn't help but feel a little impressed with Launch's boldness. She had to know she stood no chance. She'd gotten lucky and caught him off guard last time, but there was no way he'd make the same mistake twice.

He met her fierce stare with a grin. “Fine, if you want another beatdown so bad, I guess I got time.”

“Good, make sure you bring that attitude,” Launch replied with a smirk. She jutted her thumb at Kakarot. “And bring your brother, too. I want him to see what happens to people who cross me.”

The six year old jumped and nodded with excitement. “You bet I'll be there!”

Something inside Raditz twisted at the thought of facing Launch with his brother watching. He wasn’t afraid, but there was something about her confident smirk that made him feel... hesitant? Apprehensive?

He shrugged it off as he watched the two elementary school kids march back to their playground. Whatever it was, he was sure he'd get over it once he had smacked the smugness off of her dumb face.

He could hardly wait.

* * *

“So what's this girl like?” Raditz asked as he walked toward the park with Kakarot and Krillin in tow. “Aside from a giant pain in the ass.”

Kakarot made a noise of disinterest. “She's okay.”

Raditz scoffed at this lackluster response.

As much as he would have liked to ditch the babies and head straight for the park, his parents would throw a fit if they found out. “A girl challenged me to a fight” was not considered a valid excuse (no matter how much they might sympathize).

Thankfully, Krillin was much more forthcoming. “She's a disaster,” he said, sounding vaguely distressed just thinking about the girl. “We only share second recess with the fifth graders so we don't run into her that often, but when we do she likes to play war games with us little kids. She says having smaller targets helps her aim get better.”

“It probably does, especially if she can get you guys to run around instead of hiding,” Raditz agreed with a contemplative nod. He failed to notice Krillin's look of disapproval. “So that's it? She just picks on you runts and calls herself a fighter? Hah! I'm gonna murder her where she stands.”

“I dunno,” Krillin said with a touch of slyness. “I've heard Launch fights all sorts of kids, but I've never heard about her losing. You might be out of your league here.” He ducked out of the way of Raditz's annoyed swing with a laugh.

“Just shut up and watch,” the older boy spat. “You guys'll be calling her 'Lunch' when I'm through with her. Now, come on. I'm not gonna be late because of your yammering.”

The group arrived not long after and immediately spotted Launch seated on a picnic table waiting by the park's entrance. She jumped down as soon as she noticed them.

“So you decided to show after all,” she said, arms crossed arrogantly over her chest.

Raditz rolled his eyes and gestured to his and Kakarot's joined hands. “I had to pick up the runts first. Now where do you want to do this? I don't have all day to play with you.”

Launch grinned. “Suits me just fine. Come on.” She gestured for them to follow and started off toward the end of the park where the trees were denser. Raditz wasn't familiar with that particular battleground, but he could appreciate the need for privacy. He followed without complaint.

Kakarot bounced in excitement. “This is gonna be great! Hey, Raditz, can I be your second if you lose?”

Raditz flashed his brother a look of utter betrayal as Launch snorted loudly.

“Ohh, big talk from a little squirt who never tried to fight me before,” she said with a nasty laugh.

Kakarot shrugged. “I'm supposed to treat girls nice.”

“Says who?” Raditz asked, somehow more offended by this than the earlier slight.

“Grandpa.” He pulled free from Raditz's grasp to put up his fists. “But this is different! He never said anything about avenging my brother!”

“Ugh, you're not supposed to listen to what that geezer says,” Raditz scolded. He fixed Launch with his haughtiest look. “Besides, there's not gonna be enough left of her to fight anyway.”

“Yeah, yeah, blah blah,” Launch said scornfully. She had taken off her jacket and was now pulling her hair up into a bun with a scrunchie. “That's enough tough talk outta us. Let's get started!”

She barely gave Raditz enough time to set aside his backpack before she charged him.

* * *

Raditz had known he was going to win, but he had not predicted how near of a thing it would be. Even now as he sat on Launch's back, holding her face into the ground with both hands, he hesitated to give her an inch. Twice the little blonde had seemingly come back from the dead and made him sorely regret underestimating her.

As if to prove his point, she suddenly bucked beneath him with a surge of energy and very nearly dislodged him. He refrained from screaming through pure exhaustion alone.

He pushed her head down harder. “Tap out!”

She roared and thrashed like a wild animal for a while longer before finally, reluctantly, she reached up and tapped his wrist twice.

He let her up.

Launch took a huge gasp of air the moment she had lifted her face out of the grass. “Bastard! You tryin' to kill me for real?! Get offa me already!”

He gratefully rolled off her back to lay in the grass beside her. Immediately, Kakarot pounced on his stomach and knocked what little air he had out of him.

“You did it, Raditz! You kicked her butt!”

Krillin was right behind him. “Now make her swear to leave us alone from now on!”

Launch growled tiredly and turned to stare at Krillin. “I'm gonna get ya even worse for that, baldy.”

“Like hell,” Raditz panted. “I won. That means you gotta do what I say.”

“When was that ever a part of this?” she demanded.

“It's right of conquest!” Kakarot crowed with glee. He rolled over on Raditz's stomach to flash his brother a wide smile. “Tell her, Raditz! Tell her to leave Krillin alone.”

“Huh?? Just me?” Krillin asked, shocked. “What about you? And Bulma and the others?”

“Them, too,” Kakarot agreed easily. “But I still wanna play war games sometimes. It's good dodging practice!”

Raditz groaned and shoved his brother away. “Get off, both of you. I already know what I won.” He slowly and carefully sat up, wincing at his bruised tailbone where Launch had gotten a damn good kick in. She was quick to follow his example so they were face-to-face when he turned to look at her.

“So what is it?” she prompted when he didn’t immediately spit it out. Her hair was a wild mess, having long since escaped from her scrunchie. She blew a golden strand out of her face impatiently.

Raditz watched her for another few seconds before blurting, “Meet me at the fence every day at recess.”

“HUH?”

“You're wasting a wish on THAT?” Krillin screeched.

Raditz cringed internally. “N-not just you alone! I want you to bring Kakarot with you. You're the one who reminded him to show up today, right? When you wanted to fight me?” She said nothing which was all the confirmation he needed. “Then I figure it might be worth it to have someone like you on his side so I won't have to keep jumping fences.”

“I told you I'd remember from now on,” Kakarot pouted.

“Like anyone believes that,” Raditz retorted before turning his attention back to Launch.

She hadn’t moved from her spot, staring hard at him with narrowed green eyes for a long, agonizing moment until he felt like he might be sweating. Finally, she gave a short laugh and shook her head.

“That might be the dumbest wish I ever heard in my life. You coulda made me eat worms or dirt or somethin', you know.” She pushed her hand into his face when he opened his mouth to reply. “Nope, too late! You already wasted it.”

He knocked her hand away. “So you'll do it?”

“S'what I said, ain't it?”

For some stupid reason, this made him smile wider than he thought the situation required. He jumped to his feet in an effort to hide it and offered her a hand. Even more surprising than his burst of good cheer, she actually took it.

“I'm Raditz,” he said, giving her hand a strong shake like his father had taught him.

She grinned and he could see a thin line of red where he'd split her lip. “Launch.” She shook back even harder.

They parted there, each combatant going their separate ways to avoid attention. Raditz waited until she was completely out of sight before allowing himself to limp.

School was going to be rough the next day with all his bruises. He didn't relish the prospect of having his injuries questioned. Still... it wasn’t such a bleak prospect when he considered he’d have someone waiting to see him. Even if it was just that bull-headed blonde and his dumb brother. It could be fun. Maybe she’d even show him her bruises if he showed her his.

“Raditz, you got a big ol' footprint on your butt!”

Well, not ALL of them.

**Author's Note:**

> On the butt of his PANTS, of course, but Goku wasn’t the most eloquent child XD.


End file.
